Pixie Dust at Home

by Joshua Olive, ALL EARS® Guest Columnist

Feature Article

This article appeared in the
February 21, 2006, Issue #335 of ALL EARS®
(ISSN: 1533-0753)

It's definitely not as easy to find that pixie dust at home as
it is at the Most Magical Place on Earth, but it is certainly
possible. How? Well, Disney really is just about everywhere, if
you know where to look! For an unusual but highly enjoyable
Disney experience, go to your local comic book store sometime
and check out the various Disney comics available from Gemstone
Publishing and from Slave Labor Graphics.

Gemstone publishes the old time-honored and cherished Carl Barks
stories, as well as a host of Disney stories by other creators.
They carry such titles as Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse & Friends,
Donald Duck, Donald Duck & Friends, Uncle Scrooge, Walt Disney's
Comics & Stories, and Walt Disney's Vacation Parade. These are
the kind of comic books you read when you were kids, the kind
your parents read when they were kids. They haven't changed one
bit. The art styles are the same, the stories are the same -
everything is just as you remember, and just as much fun to
read. These are nice, sweet stories, with humor-filled art -
almost like watching one of those old cartoon favorites again --
and each of these titles ships a new issue every single month! A
Disney enthusiast can take home at least seven Disney comics a
month from Gemstone Publishing, as well as the occasional
graphic novel or special.

Then there are the titles shipping from Slave Labor Graphics:
The Haunted Mansion, Tron, Wonderland, and Gargoyles. Slave
Labor Graphics, or SLG as they are more commonly referred to
these days, has secured the rights to print some of the more
off-the-wall Disney properties. As you can see from the titles,
these comics are very different from the light-hearted fun of
the Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck books.

The Haunted Mansion ride promises that a ghost will follow you
home, and now you can take home 999 of them! Some of the stories
told in the Haunted Mansion comic book are very funny, and some
of them are, for lack of a better term, just plain weird. The
first story in the first issue of the comic very nicely treats
us to all the lyrics of the great Grim, Grinning Ghosts theme
song for the ride (which is awesome!), and then it goes directly
into part one of a story featuring the architects who designed
the Gracey Mansion. There are backstories for 999 Happy Haunts
to tell, and this comic promises to tell all of them. This
series is great for any fan of the Haunted Mansion who ever
wondered exactly how the Gracey Mansion was built, why it's so
creepy, and how it came to be filled with all these spirits who
are frightfully sensitive to bright lights. Also, if you have
always wanted to know a little more about Mr. Gracey, his origin
will be told in these pages over the course of the series.

Then you have Tron, Wonderland, and Gargoyles. Tron transports
you right back inside the special effects-laden computer world
of the movie, and Gargoyles picks up right where the
fan-favorite after-school cartoon left off. And while both of
those sound interesting to some degree, Wonderland is the book
I'm really waiting for. This book charts another girl's
misadventures through the weird world of Wonderland, and all the
advance copy on this title has displayed a sense of oddball
wackiness that Lewis Carroll would most definitely have approved
of!

In addition to lots of Disney comics every month, comic book
stores also have access, frequently, to hard-to-find Disney
collectibles! Be it an art book you've always wanted, a monthly
magazine devoted to Disneyana, or a statue of your favorite
"Nightmare Before Christmas" character, they can often acquire
unusual things for you without much trouble, and frequently at
reduced prices.

Sometimes, to find a little bit of pixie dust in your hometown,
you just have to look in a little bit different place. Swing by
your local comic book store and take a little bit of Disney home
with you!

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Guest Columnist Joshua Olive, 30, is a 6'6", 380-lb. man whose
inner child is bigger yet. He's been a BIG fan of Walt Disney
World since his first visit in 1979 and he's now a 15-trip
veteran. A program manager for a robotics integrator by day,
Josh was also a peer reviewer for PassPorter Walt Disney World
for Your Special Needs, written by Allears.net's Deb Wills
and Debra Martin Koma.